Surely if you have fairly old-fashioned and Conservative values you'd fit right in on those forums :p
Or maybe on the guardian comments page, that's where all the conservatives are trolling these days..
It comes down to completely different logic being used to build conservative and liberal arguments though (i.e. reactionary vs progressive) which means you rarely get a decent debate between the two, just both sides trying to shout loudest..
i guess it also comes down to people from totally different upbringings, systems of education, backgrounds etc coming together online in a way they completely wouldn't IRL.
I am probably/possibly past the time of my life where making new friends online that I am actually likely to be able to meet up with/that are potentially real life friends is now past.
You're still younger, IIRC, than I was when I met Jennie online. I still meet new people fairly regularly, and sometimes they can become very good friends.
I like forums in general, and still hang out in a few on occasion, they can be frustrating though.
Any and all argument can be worth the time put into it if you're getting something out of it--I learn stuff and/or change minds, both can be very useful.
Even if all you really learn is "people that think like this are incomprehensible to me" you might eventually learn how they think, or just to avoid that sort of discussion.
You generally can't have a decent talk about Issues in life--colleagues, friends, etc tend to not want to rock the boat &c, so unless you're active in something (like, say, local politics) you can miss out completely on the ability to talk through stuff and crowdsource facts
I suppose what I meant when I said that was that now that I am living in France I have very little in common with French people my age - they are still students at 25 whereas I have now been working for more than 2 years. I'm also getting married at an age that most French people consider to be very young, so I get the feeling that they can't really empathise with the choices I've made. And I'm not really here to meet expats (who admittedly I may have more in common with - but that's not why I moved to an anglophone country).
I find it depends very much on the context. I have a rule never to read the comments in unmoderated blogs (Comment is Free, stuff like that) because it just makes me grumpy. I depend on LJ/DW for the stuff that really makes me think, and really gets me knowing people. I think it's something about the threaded comments: one learns more from the discussion than the lecture (in the original post, I mean), and it's much easier when one can follow that discussion without having to scroll up and down to see what post no. 23 said.
Comments 5
Or maybe on the guardian comments page, that's where all the conservatives are trolling these days..
It comes down to completely different logic being used to build conservative and liberal arguments though (i.e. reactionary vs progressive) which means you rarely get a decent debate between the two, just both sides trying to shout loudest..
Reply
i guess it also comes down to people from totally different upbringings, systems of education, backgrounds etc coming together online in a way they completely wouldn't IRL.
Reply
You're still younger, IIRC, than I was when I met Jennie online. I still meet new people fairly regularly, and sometimes they can become very good friends.
I like forums in general, and still hang out in a few on occasion, they can be frustrating though.
Any and all argument can be worth the time put into it if you're getting something out of it--I learn stuff and/or change minds, both can be very useful.
Even if all you really learn is "people that think like this are incomprehensible to me" you might eventually learn how they think, or just to avoid that sort of discussion.
You generally can't have a decent talk about Issues in life--colleagues, friends, etc tend to not want to rock the boat &c, so unless you're active in something (like, say, local politics) you can miss out completely on the ability to talk through stuff and crowdsource facts
Reply
I suppose what I meant when I said that was that now that I am living in France I have very little in common with French people my age - they are still students at 25 whereas I have now been working for more than 2 years. I'm also getting married at an age that most French people consider to be very young, so I get the feeling that they can't really empathise with the choices I've made. And I'm not really here to meet expats (who admittedly I may have more in common with - but that's not why I moved to an anglophone country).
So you could argue I've done it to myself :p
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment